I was finally able to arrange a game of Age of Sigmar (AoS hereafter). My good friends Drew brought his impressive collection of Orruks and Gits over.
So when arranging the game we first spoke about wound counts, warscroll type restrictions. But after pondering this a while, we decided that we are both sensible chaps, and we can take our opponents enjoyment into consideration during our set up. With that in mind we decided to keep the games on the smaller side, but the problem is we had so much we wanted to try out, it was hard to choose what to use, so our armies were more to the medium size.
We decided to play on a small board size 4' by 4'. But other than that we played it straight out of the book.
Game 1
Rolled up scenery, choose a diangle set up, and started throwing down.
Deployment
10 River Trolls
2 Boar chariots
Azhag the slaughterer
Mangler Squig
Orc Shaman on Boar.
18 Boar boys
Giant
Warpfire thrower
6 Stormfiends (on of each weapon)
Packmaster
5 Jezzials
Rattling gun
Warlord
Grey seer
25 clanrats
Hell pit Abomination
Packmaster
Poison wind launcher (hiding behind the rocks)
Turn 1 top Orruks
Turn 1 bottom Skaven
Warlord commanded the clanrats to gnash-gnaw their bones. Seer cast Vermintide on the Boar boys, killing 2
Jezzials hold postion everything else moves up.
Skaven shooting is awesome, Jezzials drop Calvary with ease. Stormfiends rip into their ranks as well. Rattling cannon blasts into the mangled Squig for a few wounds. And the warpfire thrower drops flaming hurt on the giant. Clanrats fail to make a 6 inch charge.
Turn 2 Top Orruks
Orruks keep the initiative, Azhag flies over the rocks to where the mortar is hiding. Everything else's moves up to prepare the charge. On the Charge, boar boys charge the Stormfiends. Giant charges the weapon team. Chariots and Manglar charge the clanrats. Azhag charges the mortar.
Giant and Azhag stomp their weapon team targets. Chariots smash some rats. Manglar is also in contact with the fiends and goes for them, boar boys bounce off the fiends (rubber spears). In return the fiends decimate the boars.
Turn 2 bottom skaven
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Abomination is befuddled again. Stormfiends beat up the remaing boar boys. Grey seer Arcane bolts the giant. Jezzials shoot and wound Azhag. Rattling gun wounds a chariot. Clanrats have inspiring presence and hold dispite casualties taken.
Turn 3 top Orruks
Azhag is befuddled by the mystical terrain
Trolls charge the Abomination. Giant charges Jezzials, but also stays in range of the Stormfiends. But badly wounded he is unable to do and telling damage (and few wounds on the fiends and a dead Jezzial team) and in a surprising turn of events the remaining gun teams finish of the remaining 2 wounds on the giant. Luckily it topples away from it's killers. Fiends kill the last of the Boar boys (that was a big unit. Took a lot of chewing). Abomination kills a single troll and in return the trolls floor the Abomination (it does not rise again).
Turn 3 bottom Skaven
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Rattling gun, Greyseer and the warlord pull back, away from the trolls.
Fiends shoot at the Trolls then piles in and kill the chariots, Jezzials shoot at Azhag. Rattling gun shoots at the trolls.
Turn 4 top Skaven
Initiative Stolen!
Fiends move up the kills Orc Shaman. Rattling takes out the last Troll.
And we call it there
Post game thoughts. That mixed unit of fiends is devastating, plenty of shooting and melee attacks coming out of it, lots of wounds and a good save, this unit has it all! In a game that favours elite troop choices this is the skaven one.
Game 2
This game we both wanted to try a formation out from the warscrolls he choose a Greenskinz big mob, and I choose the Verminus clawpack.
Deployment
Skaven
38 stormvermin, 38 clanrats with spears, 2 units of 20 clanrats with rusty blades. Poison wind mortar, Warpfire thrower, Rattling gun. And a Warlord.
Worth noting that I choose my stormvermin champion to be my army leader, as the Verminus Clawpack warscroll allows me to use the warlords command ability even if he is not my army general.
Orruks
Boss on Wyvern, Shaman on Boar. 30 Boys with 2 choppas, 30 Boys with shield and choppa. 24 Boys with bows. 18 Boys on boars.
Turn 1 Top Skaven
In hind sight I should have let the Orukks go first or held back, and got some more shooting done. But I rushed ahead blindly, forward clanrats are inspired! Stormvermin are Gnash-gnawed (i didn't realise the warscroll gives this ability a radius, until my second turn). Shooting was not effective or out of range.
Turn 1 bottom Orruks
CHARGE!!!
Wyvern flies right over the land in the middle of all 3 weapon teams. Orcs slam into the entire rat frontline. Masses of rats die in the impact. Only few of the right flank clanrats survive the hold back the green tide. But the the buffed Stormvermin retaliate, hacking through half of the orcs infront, the rest flee from battleshock. The spear rats use their pile in to slide over under the Wyverns wings allowing most of them to strike at the beast, wounding it.
Turn 2 Top SkavenGeneral bellows at his unit to be inspired. Warlord commands everyone to gnash and gnaw (it was at this point I realise that this ability has a radius for this warscroll formation). StormVermin fall back, to recharge using the banner ability, I did this to get more bodies into combat than a 3 inch pile in could do. Warlord charges the Wyvern, hacks it up a bit and then retreats before any retaliation. Stormvermin wipe out the shield boys. Clanrats still in combat with the Wyvern hack it a little and lose many of their own in reply.
Hack and run warlord!
Shield boys wiped out!
Turn 3 bottom Orruks
Shaman casts foot of Gork on the vermin. Arrow Boys shoot a volley into the vermin.
Boar boys charge a wipe out what little remains of the Vermin.
Wyvern stomps bites and stings the remaining clanrats to death.
Knowing the end is nigh! I decided to go down swinging. Warlord commands himself the gnash-gnaw their bones, and charges the wounded Wyvern. Lashes out with his warpforged blade, and strikes down the beast and it's rider.
Turn 3 bottom Orruks
Seeing the boss get taken down the Boar boys taken no chances, and corral the Skaven Warlord.
Post game thoughts.
Turns, iniative.
I like that the iniative of the round can be switch makes for a interesting game. In hindsight I can see the benefits of letting the other player have the first turn so they can close the gap for you, and allowing yourself a chance to steal the initiative and get a double turn.
More freedom of movement makes better story's. Like the Boar boyz corraling my Warlord, which would have not been possible in 8th edition.
Battle shock, was good. It worked well in my opinion. I was worried about it, but when you lose a couple of models, maybe a few more will go. But you won't lose entire units to an unlucky roll of double 6. But is you do lose 20 models to enemy attacks then yes the other 20 all most certainly lose their nerve and all flee. It works as a game mechanic.
That said I miss over runs and pursuit.
But I am curious to see how it works with more elite troops (which defeats into my next point.
Small elite units are definitely the flavour of AoS, the Stormfiends were really good. Lots of wounds, good save, made them hard to kill. And then in combat even the range weapons clubbing does 2 damage per, and the melee weapon armed fiends get an extra wound to boot on top of the great damage out put. I think the A-team (one of each weapon options) will come out more often.
War gaming future?
I like this game it is fun. But I am willing try other things. In that regards I have spoken briefly with Pete, about trying to play Kings of War. And worse case I still have my 8th edition books, although I look back at 8th and remember it's own imbalances and problems and I am not keen on jumping back into that complicated mess of a game.
